The Shocking Reason Andy Griffith Canceled His Own Hit Show—And the ‘Deep Panic’ That Followed

Published: June 4, 2026

Andy Griffith Getty Images-3203900 — circa 1965: L-R: American actors Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, and Ron Howard sit on a metal swing, smiling, in a promotional portrait for the television series, 'The Andy Griffith Show'. Knotts wears a small cowboy hat. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

By Mallory Mattingly

Surprisingly, Andy Griffith was the one who decided to cancel THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, which caused him to hit a wall in his career.

THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, which ran from 1960-1968, followed Griffith’s “Sheriff Andy Taylor and his son, Opie, as they settle into the sleepy, crime-free town of Mayberry, North Carolina. The series also features Andy’s nervous cousin, Barney Fife, as his less-than-ideal deputy,” a synopsis of the show reads.

Griffith’s longtime manager, Dick Linke, explained to PEOPLE in 1979 that Griffith “figured that the show had run its course” and “wanted to do more serious things.” However, Griffith “knows he made a mistake.”

For nine years after the end of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, the actor found himself in a “dry spell.”

“I did five pilots that got nowhere, had two series that flopped,” Griffith told PEOPLE. “I went from pillar to post and became known as a character actor around town.”

That’s when he began to struggle mentally.

“A deep panic set in,” he revealed, adding, “mostly when I went down to North Carolina [where he had a house on 53 acres] and after two weeks nothing came in the mail — no outlines, no scripts, no phone calls. The idea that the movie community was running along so beautifully without me — man, it drove me up the wall.”

Luckily for Griffith, he didn’t need to land a lead role somewhere; he just wanted to play something that was “interesting,” like his role in WASHINGTON: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.

“Thank God I don’t have that kind of ego,” the actor, who died in 2012 at age 86, said.

The one-season miniseries told the story of a “power-hungry US President, and the men, with whom he surrounds himself, to keep his hold on power. Based on John Ehrlichman’s book about the Nixon administration,” TV Guide shared.

After WASHINGTON: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, Griffith continued to work, landing small roles in TV series and movies. The THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW crew reunited in 1986 for RETURN TO MAYBERRY.

That same year, in March of 1986, Griffith’s second major success came in the form of MATLOCK, “which aired its two-part pilot in March 1986, ‘Diary of a Perfect Murder.’ The show was part of the weekly schedule beginning that September and aired for nine seasons, until 1995. Griffith played Ben Matlock, a defense attorney (who chooses his cases because he believes the client is innocent),” according to PEOPLE.

Despite not having the career he wanted after THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, Griffith kept moving forward, eventually finding success again through TV series like WASHINGTON: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS and MATLOCK.

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